Updating Exercise Testing Strategies and Exercise Prescription Protocols

Exercise testing and prescription is still a hot topic [...].

Exercise testing and prescription is still a hot topic.It is evidenced by the constant updating of the guidelines for exercise testing and prescription provided by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).While the guidelines describe the most relevant test for general population with or without specific conditions, it also describes Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type (FITT) of exercise prescription [1,2].
Another example of this hot topic is the "physical activity on prescription" model adopted by Sweden in which all licensed healthcare professionals may prescribe it.In 2019, a systematic review about the main elements of this model was published.Specifically, the study included studies that compared adults who received this models versus those who did not and the main findings showed that there was a tendency for higher levels of physical activity in those who followed the Swedish model [3].Additionally, this model was considered the best by the European Commission and it was then used by 10 European countries in a project to implement this approach [4].
Even so, there are several questions that are still not well addressed such as other specific tests in the different contexts, the specific exercises or even questions about training periodization.
Therefore, this Special Issue updated information on exercise testing and prescription strategies to improve quality of life.The present Special Issue contributed to the field with 19 articles: In resume, the articles addressed at least one dimension of physical fitness (cardiorespiratory endurance, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility) as well as quality of life, mainly measured by questionnaires (see Table 1).Moreover, it is relevant to highlight that this special issue also included studies that addressed specific conditions such as fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, knee arthroplasty, obesity with metabolic syndrome, low back pain, postpartum women, and people with premature ventricular beats.The current special issue provided and constitutes relevant information for fitness professional and exercise physiologists.At the same time, it showed meaningful findings about the online exercise testing procedures (see contributors 15 and 17).In addition, it was observed that there are still several research that uses only one type of exercise, despite the general guidelines of the ACSM recommend more that one type [1].Furthermore, there is a recommendation for future research include behavior change theories in exercise intervention as suggested by the protocol of the contributor 2. Finally, the present special issue also reinforces more research on specific populations, with different ways to control intensity, more specialized tests, while including training periodization practices as well as behavior changes.

Table 1 .
Analysis of the published contributions in the Special Issue.